Irina Galushko

For an investigative reporter, the Examiner’s Julia Davis seems to lack one basic professional skill: fact checking. Or perhaps it's a lack of attention to detail that sees her repeatedly ignoring simple facts, particularly where RT is involved.

RT's Paula Slier, Irina Galushko, Murad Gazdiev and Maria Finoshina are on the front line on Syria's borders, witnessing the Peshmerga Kurds fight against Islamic State. We follow the live updates from our correspondents on the scene.

Vladimir Putin and Petro Poroshenko shook hands as talks between the Eurasian Customs Union, EU and Ukraine began in Minsk. The crisis in eastern Ukraine is likely to dominate the agenda, with Poroshenko calling on the forum to accept his peace plan.

A journalist released from the ANNA news agency, who was captured along with RT contributor Graham Phillips, told RT that they were abducted by the Ukrainian army and tortured and beaten. Phillips’ fate remains unknown.

President Vladimir Putin has proposed that the upper house call off the March 1 resolution allowing the head of state to use the armed forces on the territory of Ukraine, said presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov.

In order to alleviate energy dependence on Moscow, the coup-imposed government in Kiev has resurrected a contract with a US company to supply fuel to Ukraine’s nuclear power plants. Using US fuel rods was banned in 2012 due to dangerous incompatibility.